Gello as a Greek Orthodox Demon? (beliefs, blood, church, pagan)

[DeepShadow]

I'm doing research for a story, and wondered if I might get some help from my friends on here. What can you tell me about Gello? Here's most of what I've got so far:

"In Greek legends, the gelloudes are a kind of female demon that steals and then devours young children. The prototype for the gelloudes was the maiden Gello whose ghost, according to the ancient poetess Sappho, returned after her untimely death and was said by the people of the isle of Lesbos to have caused the early deaths of children. By the 10th century A.D., Gello had become a demon of the Greek Orthodox Church. Her various minions were the gelloudes.

"In Greek folklore, gelloudes have 12½ secret names. The names (transliterated from the Greek) are: 1) Guloy — a form of Gello; 2) Mora — a kind of lamia; 3) Budzoy —a sucker of blood; 4) Marmaroy — “heart of stone”; 5) Petasis — “fly like a bird”; 6) Pelagia — “swim like a fish”; 7)
Bordona — “swoop like a hawk”; 8) Apletoy — “insatiable”; 9) Khamodrakaina — “lurk like a snake”; 10) Anabardalaia — “soar like a hawk”; 11) Psychanaspastria — “snatcher of souls”; 12) Paidopniktria — “strangler of children”; and 12½) Strigla — a kind of stirge."

I'm quite serious about this, and have not intention of being disrespectful of your beliefs. I've got a menalogion of female GO saints; is there some lexicon somewhere that would have info on Gello?

[James the Persian]

Never heard of it. Whatever this Gello is, it is certainly not an Orthodox belief, in the sense of being an official part of Orthodox teaching. Of course, I'm Romanian rather than Greek Orthodox myself and so I can't categorically state that no such thing is believed in Greece (though I did worship for several years in a Greek church and never heard of it their either), but if it is then it is clearly a folk superstition rather than part of our faith. Such things are quite common. For instance, in Romania there is a belief in 'deochi', a curse rather like the evil eye. People put red tassles or ribbons on livestock and unbaptised children to ward it off and, despite the ill educated convincing themselves that it is a legitimate religious belief, it is opposed by the Church as superstition. In particular the tassles are opposed as any legitimate warding off of evil influences should be done with prayer and the cross. All else is paganism in a Christian overcoat. I dare say this is true of the 'demon' you are asking about also. If you really are interested in an answer to your question you can PM me and I'll point you in the direction of an Orthodox forum where you can ask. There's at least one poster there who sems pretty knowledgeable on Greek folk customs and he culd probably answer you better than I can.

James